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Nightmarish, Part Two
Tyrants Issue 8- "Nightmarish, Part Two." Front cover- on the front cover are four characters. In the background, stands the huge Bogeyman, an eight foot tall man, part muscle, part fat, dressed in a Citizen Titan uniform, with his own black round shield sling across his left arm. In front of him stands the controlled anti-hero, Ripcage, whose body is a black skeleton without any internal organs, his eye sockets filled with a green glow, his arms turned into long scything blades, on the cover. He stands in a bent, skulking pose, scything blades almost touching the stone he stands on. Next to him stands Leviathan, a six foot tall, green fish-scaled, gilled and fish eyed humanoid, which impressive, bunched muscles, dressed in simple black shorts. In the foreground of the cover is the top half of the head of Black Nightmare, eyes glowing yellow. Along the bottom of the cover in yellow words is the caption, TEAM TITAN BLACK (NIGHTMARE.) Narration- "Four Years Ago." Le Qui leaps to his feet. "Fred?" He calls. He rubs his eyes. And finds himself standing inside a circular, transparent tube, a cell within it, with a simple toilet and white pallet bed. The comic zooms out to show the Omega Institute prison room, where Le Qui's original Tyrants career started. "Damn it, no..." He presses his hands against the glass. "Tell me I'm still dreaming?" He looks to the other 'cells' which are all empty, except for two, which contain Kaan'Qsst and the Dark Magician. "I'm afraid not. They captured us while we slept. Black Nightmare kept us that state", Kaan'Qsst explains. "Not me of course. I killed hundreds of them whilst you two little puppies slept, trust me", says Dark Magician. Le Qui sits on the bed and lies back on the bed. "Damn it. Should have stayed with Jack." The comic then cuts to Dark Magician, where we left him, on the cliffisde, looking at Blitzkrieg. "Ohhhhhhhhhh... I get it? You see, if you really were Blitzkrieg..." Blitzkrieg runs at him, but his claw phases through Dark Magician "You would have stabbed me, ''then ''made the witticism. I mean, Wrench did, and that guy is pretty low on the evil scale, from my ''vast ''experience." He looks out at the hills as the Blitzkrieg illusion disappears. "Where are you, Black Nightmare? May I say, its a pleasure. Because when you last time to kill a bunch of Tyrants associated villains, you ''completely ''over-looked me at the time. I mean, you killed Rook. That guy comes back, every time. I should know, I made him that way. He is so weepy about it too... give a man more or less complete indestructability... minus the horrible repeated agonising deaths... and he whines about it. ''What ''is the world coming to?" The comic cuts to lower down the opposite hillside, where the front part was demolished by Dark Magician. The reader sees the backs of Black Nightmare, Leviathan and Bogeyman. "Who exactly is that guy? He definitely wasn't in the Tyrants. Do either of you remember trying to kill him?" "Nope" says Leviathan. "Well, whatever. He is really quite annoying. I suppose you better kill him while he is ranting. The other two are dealt with, and he seems so self-absorbed, he hasn't even noticed." Black Nightmare closes his eyes again. The comic cuts to the cliffside where Le Qui lies awake, staring at the sky, in the exact same pose he was shown in the opening scene. A few feet from him, is Kaan'Qsst on his knees, as Ripcage has plunged his claws into his back and out of his chest. The fingers then snap off as the metal closes over. "Arggh!" Ripcage staggers back, the wrist and hand missing from his right arm, as bits of bone drop down to the floor. Kaan'Qsst rises to his feet, and still looking out at the hills he booms "Who dares strike me from behind?" He turns, and yet sees nothing there at all. "Teleporter, or speedster... maybe phasing.. or... invisible!" His eyes turns red. "No... not invisible or phased in the rock... if a speedster, he will no threat above. And a teleporter,.a less likely threat." Kaan'Qsst jets into the air, maintaining his gun battery, as the guns rotate around in a multitude of directions, seeking targets. Ripcage, still where he was stood before, stares at the stump where the bottom of his arm was. Over several panels, it regrows. He then looks up at the floating Kaan'Qsst. "Now you die." Bony wings sprout out of his back, as he flies up and arcs behind Kaan'Qsst and then grows in size. He slams his giant hands together, with Kaan'Qsst between them, but some of the bone cracks and splinters off. Kaan'Qsst turns and sees nothing again. "You show yourself!" he booms. "I'm right here..." says Ripcage, shown in the next panel, with a gigantic blade arm pointed right at Kaan'Qsst's throat. Dark Magician turns to see Wrench flying at him. "Now, are you really Wrench or not... I mean, there is nothing particularly nightmarish about Wrench... admittedly, slightly less memorable than I remember.." Dark Magician holds out a hand, as he blasts the incoming energy bolts fired out of the air. From below, a black shield flies at him. He looks right at it "Ooooh, they sent a Citizen Titan to kill me? I hope its not the African fellow, he was far ''too ''easily to grievously injure. No wait, you left the city... both did... so who is..." he blasts the shield out of the air. "Hah! Though you caught me monologuing, but I am capable of ''multi-tasking ''you know!" Leviathan jumps out of the dark at him. "OHhhhhhh so the shield was a distraction very cl..." Leviathan's fist smacks him in the face, and Dark Magician tumbles through the air, his body breaking through more of the cliffside he had partially destroyed before. Leviathan lands on top of the rubble. "Find the body! If he's dead, we need to confirm it. Don't want that coming back to bite us in the back later" comes a command from off-panel. Leviathan nods, and bends down to the rubble. Kaan'Qsst morphs his bionic body again, this time, creating small circular hatches across his back and torso. "Well, it seems you are not a speedster... and if you are invisible, you have no heat signature.... which means you are either a teleport or a flier... so.... time for randomised targets." The hatches all open in unison. And in a single paged spread, Kaan'Qsst fires a spree of tiny rockets from his body. On the next page, Ripcage is shown screaming as he is hit by a multitude of them, though only small bones are blasted apart, the rest of him left smoking. Then he rams the scything blade into Kaan'Qsst's throat. Ripcage's entire body shudders from the electrical shock, as he tears into the mechanical 'skin' of Kaan'Qsst, as Kaan'Qsst's hands go to the wound. "I... see..CHK... you..." he scowls, looking right at Ripcage. Black Nightmare looks up, fists clenched. "All right, he's seen through the illusion. Time bring him down fast." A large telepathic thought bubble appears across the top of the next panel saying "I want him alive." "Yes, Blitzkrieg", Black Nightmare, Ripcage, Bogeyman and Leviathan all say in unison. "I'll never get used to that" says Wrench, flying at Kaan'Qsst. He wraps his arms around Kaan'Qsst's chest from behind, as cables snake out from multiple points along his sleeves and latch suction cups onto several points on Kaan'Qsst's metal shell. Electricity shoots out from Kaan'Qsst's body. On the next page, Kaan'Qsst sits in cuboid chair made out of green gridwork. There is a table made of the same in front of him, with Wrench reclining in an opposite chair. They are within a cube of the same gridwork. Kaan'Qsst looks around. "More trickery, Nightmare, whilst your lackies kill me!" Kaan'Qsst stands up, ignoring Wrench, yelling at the ceiling. "No, this is my trickery" says Wrench. "We're long overdue a talk, but with several lackeys of Blitzkrieg with nanites inside them, allowing Blitzkrieg to sense what they sense, thats been a bit difficult till now. But, now you have my own upgraded nanotech, I decided to try and make a direct link between them. If the calculations are correct, then, by the time we have finished this conversation, I doubt a millisecond will have even passed in real time." Kaan'Qsst lays his hands on the gridwork. "This could be another complex trick. But it seems real." He forms an arm into a cannon. "Hmm. It will not fire." "Of course. This is purely a mental environment under my control. The only deception I intend is against my current associates, not you." "You tried to kill me earlier." "No, I made it damn well ''look ''I was trying to kill you. "You were convincing." "From a powerful warrior-alien, I think I'll take that as a compliment." Kaan'Qsst sits down. "Speak." "Okay, lets recap. You want to get back to Earth. You want an army to take on the Kraan invasion, because they are all coming, and you want to wipe them all out." "Yes." "And you'll want an entire army for that." "Blitzkrieg controls this entire city. And I assume, we were... confined, because he could have controlled the globe." "That was the idea. So, whats your play?" "If I can absorb Blitzkrieg again, then guarantee his destruction, his army will be mine." "But the planet won't be, unless you escape this little sub-dimension." Kaan'Qsst leans back in the seat, knuckles scraping the 'floor.' "Correct." "So, why do you think, I, a human, would let you take over my own planet, to repel an alien invasion?" "You were already on the cusp of giving your planet to an ex-human, robotic being, who essentially plans to make a planet of fellowing living machines. I do not know his next step, after such a domination, but I doubt it would be kind." Wrench folds his arms. "Yet you're a humanitarian." "In comparison, I likely am. After the Kraan fleet is destroyed, your planet has filled his purpose." "You see, Blitzkrieg may be a Nazi, but I am quite sure he wouldn't blow the planet." "Neither would I. Once the Kraan are destroyed, by work is done. I would return to whatever remains of my people, for whatever punishment or reward they might give me for my task. The planet would be left to the humans." "To the nanite-imbedded, controlled humans." "You have better nanites than Blitzkrieg, one assumes, without a controller, myself or Blitzkrieg, you could take that role. Or, you would have the means to use your nanites to destroy the others. The planet's freedom would be in your hands." Wrench leans on a clench fist. "And what did you offer Rook to help you?" "He asked for nought. He wishes to redeem his so-called soul, now he seems to think he has one again. He is happy enough to defend his planet. In fact, he should be beginning work on financing a defense system as we speak." Wrench leans back. "If he wasn't lying." Kaan'Qsst nods. "Indeed." "All right, you are the more logical ally, I agree. But I stand by what I said before. Now is not the time to fight Blitzkrieg. A coup is useless whilst we remain in this sub-dimension, so we wait until Blitzkrieg finds the exit..." "Or we wait for the heroes to come, defeat him, and return the city to the world." "And then we strike" Wrench punches his fists together. "Then we are agreed." "Not quite, you're gonna have to agree to stop fighting." "The ex-Titan is trying to kill me." "He isn't. I intercepted Blitzkrieg's communications to them. He wants you alive. We just need to hope thats long enough time for us to escape this dimension." "It seems, my small team will not be enough to openly oppose him. It seems I will have to put faith in you, Wrench." Wrench grins. "All right then, this is how we do this? You familiar with a human term called playing possum?" Narration- "Four Years Later. The present." Wrench stands, gazing out of the window at the frightening order of Blitzkrieg City. "Come on heroes, where are you." End of issue.